Where to submit long short stories

If you think ‘brevity is the soul of wit’ is a bunch of hooey, this month’s list is for you. We’re focusing on where to submit long short stories, aka long-form fiction.

It can be hard to find a publisher for short stories over 7,000 words (some publishers refer to stories occupying the murky ground between short story and novella as ‘novelettes’ but to us that sounds kind of demeaning; we prefer ‘long-form fiction’). And what on earth do you do with a full-blown novella (between 15,000 and 30,000 words)? Should you have one of these beasts on your hands, read on and take heart.

Poets and writers of shorter fiction, there are some goodies here for you too. You can also see our other posts on great places to submit.

Note: We are a creative writing school and compile these lists for the benefit of our students. We’re happy to answer questions about our courses but please don’t send us your publishing queries or submissions :). Instead, click on the green links to go to the publication’s website and look for their submissions page. For more great places to submit as well as our best tips on getting published, check out our other lists and resources.

Ploughshares Solos – an off-shoot of the well-respected Ploughshares magazine, Solos was established especially for long-form fiction. They accept stories of between 7,500 to 20,000 words and stand-alone excerpts from novels and memoirs. They read between 1 June and 15 January. And they’ll pay you! The downside: they may take up to five months to make a decision (but they often respond within two) and they do charge a $3 online submissions fee to non-subscribers.

Working Titles, a project of the Massachusetts Review, publishes fiction and creative nonfiction with word counts in the 7,000 to 25,000 range. They appreciate work that integrates visual and interactive elements. Each stand-alone Working Title is published as an e-book available for download. They are open for electronic submissions, for which there is a $3 fee, from 2 October to 30 April, and the rest of the year they accept submissions by post.

One Story accepts literary fiction of between 3,000 to 8,000 words. Each issue, which is published in print and e-book formats, contains only a single story, so, as you can imagine, competition is fierce. Payment for accepted stories is $500 and 25 contributors copies. They have two submissions windows per year: 15 January – 31 May 3 and 4 October – 14 November. The editors try to make a decision within 3 months but often take longer.

Apt –  publishes an annual print edition of long-form fiction of between 10,000 and 15,000 words (and poetry of between 200 to 500 lines!) as well as weekly short fiction (up to 2000 words) and poetry online. They accept long-form work between 1 March and 1 September and short fiction year-round. They are looking for writing that combines the cerebral with the visceral. They love hybrids, writing with an activist bent, and they make an extra effort to support women, writers of colour, LGBQTIA, and disabled writers. They ask for up to three months to respond for the print edition, but generally get back for both print and online in around a month.

Scarlet Leaf Review – this Canadian journal accepts stories of up to 15,000 words and novellas of up to 30,000, as well as poetry, flash fiction, short stories and creative nonfiction. Their mission is to give voice to emerging writers, so this is a great one to test the waters with. They are open to genre fiction and accept work and publish online throughout the year and generally respond within two to three months.

The Society of Misfit Stories –  publishes three issues of long-form fiction annually. They accept stories of between 5,000-20,000 words and are interested in all speculative genres (horror, fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, steampunk, magical realism, etc), as well as mysteries, thrillers, and action-adventure stories. If your story is accepted, they’ll pay you $50. Their response time is not the fastest–you could be waiting six months or more.